New figures from the National Education Union show that Black
teachers are paid less than white teachers, remain
underrepresented at leadership level, and are more likely to be
pushed from the profession through workplace discrimination than
their white peers.
The report shows:
- Black classroom teachers outside London earned 4.5% less on
average last year than white counterparts
- 12% of classroom teachers are from Black backgrounds, but
among deputy and assistant heads this figure is only 8%, falling
further to just 5% of heads
- Retention problems are greater for Black teachers – each year
around 8-12% leave the English state school system before
retirement, compared to around 6-8% of white teachers.
- Almost 60% of Black teachers described workplace
discrimination as a major or minor cause of stress, compared to
less than 30% of white teachers.
Given the clear disadvantage experienced by Black teachers, it's
clear that this needs to be much more of a priority for employers
and for Government.
The NEU recommends:
For Government:
- Address the loss of Black teachers at every career stage,
within all work on recruitment and retention.
- A national strategy to address the specific additional
barriers faced by Black teachers.
- Commit to goals around building a diverse teaching
profession.
For employers:
- Maintain a pay policy which sets out how pay decisions are
made and which is compliant with the Equality Act 2010.
- Give teachers ready access to this pay policy and review it
annually in consultation with the teachers and union
representatives at the school.
- Set out clear information about their pay structure with
transparency over all pay decisions – pay progression, payment of
allowances such as TLR payments, and pay for leaders.
- Publish procedures for teachers seeking to review a pay
decision in line in line with the ACAS Code of Practice on
disciplinary and grievance.
- Provide details of pay outcomes by equality groups.
- Ensure that full information on and access to promotion
opportunities is provided to all staff
- Replace discredited and unfair performance related pay
systems with automatic pay progression and supportive
appraisal.
Commenting on the report, Daniel Kebede, General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The ethnicity pay gap among England's teaching workforce has
stayed stubborn for a decade, and this must not go on. The urgent
recruitment and retention crisis, in which teachers leave the
profession just a few years after qualifying, is contributing to
a shortage of Black teachers in senior positions. As well as pay
and high workload, these teachers are also leaving because of
workplace discrimination.
“As part of the Department for Education's efforts to solve the
recruitment and retention crisis, their strategy must address the
loss of Black teachers at every career stage. We must, together,
tackle the barriers facing Black teachers. There are so many
upsides for students from getting the chance to learn from, and
be inspired by, teachers with different backgrounds.”
Sources
Freedom of Information request: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/mean_and_median_pay_teacher_by_e_2#incoming-2759836
School Workforce Census, reporting year 2023: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england
